Rules of Laundry

For those of you who are prospective college students reading this, or anyone else for that matter – especially those who live in apartments and have a community washroom and have to pay for washing as well, here are some things about laundry that I feel you should be aware of.

1) Do your laundry. No one wants to be around someone who is wearing dirty clothes.
2) Have plenty of quarters on hand. Quarters are like gold to college students. Laundry at college is not cheap, and you may have to do less loads than you’re used to (I usually wash a light colored load and a dark colored load). Don’t make not having quarters an excuse to not do your laundry. You have been warned.
3) Time your laundry. Washing usually takes 35 minutes and drying takes 45 minutes to an hour, depending on how many quarters you put in and how well the dryers dry.
4) Be on time to get your laundry out of the washers and dryers (you have about a 15 minute leeway, especially if it’s a Saturday when everyone is doing laundry)
5) Laundry that is left for over an hour and half (really, 30 minutes) is fair game.
6) If someone moves your laundry to do their own because you forgot yours, deal with it. Do not be stupid/mean and move theirs out before it’s finished just to get back at them. It’s your fault that your laundry has been sitting there.
7) If you feel like it, leave a note explaining why you moved the laundry – it might make people less hostile.
8) Again, be on time to get your laundry and then you won’t have to worry about your clothes getting moved so you feel like you have to rewash them and waste your precious quarters.

I went to do laundry this morning at 11:30 and someone’s clothes were in the one and only washer my apartment complex has. I left to go to Wal-Mart and go shopping. I got back around 1:00 and proceeded to go do my laundry, assuming the other person had been down to take care of theirs. The same clothes were still in the washer. I moved them into the plastic tub that was sitting there with laundry detergent, since I assumed they belonged there. The clothes had that yucky wet smell to them, as if they’d been there awhile (since they had been there for at least an hour and a half!). I was up cleaning my apartment when I hear a door bounce and “Someone moved my clothes!” “Really, did they leave a note?” Duh someone moved your clothes, you obviously forgot you had laundry. So, I go down after 35 minutes, I time my laundry, and my clothes are now on the counter and hers are back in the washer being rewashed. I’m thinking this is pretty rude. I had given her an hour and a half to take care of hers, and I’m pretty sure mine weren’t done washing when she took them out. But whatever. I put mine in the dryer, and my laundry got done. People really need to grow up sometimes. Seriously, if your laundry is there for over an hour and a half, someone is going to move it, especially on a Saturday.

I think we’re going to a party at my friend’s house tonight. It should be entertaining at the least. Today’s been pretty uneventful, minus the laundry. I cleaned our apartment, it’s always nice to feel like things look like they are where they belong. It’s kind of strange to me to not have any homework to be doing on the weekends, but that’s ok. I’m glad to not have it. I need to be working on my portfolio, but that’s for another day.